Blue Eyes of the Crystal Lake
by ChrystalLake
Summary: When a young kit is found, abandoned in an empty nursery in a deserted camp, she must learn to live with the choices her father made before she was born.
1. Prologue

The three young kits stumbled around the nursery, crying for their mother. A single cat was all they needed... For the moment. Several large toms slipped down the gorge and into the nursery, looking for the kits so desperately calling for their mother. One of them, a pure black tom with bright green eyes, picked up the smallest of the three.

"Greeneyes, why are you taking her? She's useless. She'll slow us down!" a different tom, a brown and gray tabby, asked.

Greeneyes simply gestured for the other two to pick up the remaining kits. When he was sure that his companions would not leave the kits, he padded back up the gorge. The other toms had no time to see the sorrow and compassion in his eyes before he slipped into the dark, disappearing from view.


	2. Chapter 1: The Truth

"Greeneyes, why are we going to the gorge?" Crystalkit asked the large black tom ahead of her. He didn't look back at her as he kept padding forward. "Is there something there we need to get?"

"No. But there is something you need to know, and I cannot tell you around the other cats in the Clan. Can I trust you to not tell another cat while I still breath the air of this forest?" While he spoke, Greeneyes scrambled down the edge of the gorge, Crystalkit right behind him.

"Okay. Is it a really big secret? Or is it a small secret?"

"Both. No other cat knew I had mated a she-cat from another Clan, a Tribe, actually. She was your mother. The Tribe didn't know who the father was, but when the floods came last moon, they kept the three kits she had kitted safe. When I heard of the flood, I raced down here with two other warriors of TreeClan. They thought we were here only to see who we could save. But I knew better."

Crystalkit sat down on the muddy dirt. "So... Does that mean I don't have a mom, as well as no siblings now?"

Greeneyes nodded. "I'm sorry I couldn't save your brothers, or your mother. But you still have a father. One you should be ashamed of."

"Ashamed of my father? Why?"

"I killed your brothers."


	3. Chapter 2: Homecoming

Crystalkit backed away from her father in horror. "No. You couldn't have. It was a badger. A badger killed them. They even smelled like badger. There's no way you killed them. You were in WindClan all the time!"

Greeneyes shook his head sadly. "I did. I killed them. Then I dragged them into a badger set and rolled them in the scent. After that I cleared up the blood trail and lay them where you found them that night."

The young she-cat shook her head in horrified disbelief. She was mouthing one word, over and over. "No." When her father took a step towards her, she turned and ran, ran straight into the forest, not caring where she ended up, as long as it was away from the murderous tom that claimed to be her father. She was crying. Sobbing. Her heart had been broken, ever so slightly. But it still hurt terribly.

_**THE NEXT MORNING**_

Crystalkit woke up and rubbed her eyes with a paw. Blearily, she tried making her way back to the WaterClan camp. Looking around, she remembered what Greeneyes had told her the night before. That he had killed her brothers, not some heartless badger. Shaking her head, she forged on, smelling the air every so often to make sure she was on the right path to home.

"Crystalkit!"a worried voice called from ahead of the small black-and-white tabby kit. Looking up, she saw the cat that had been her mother for all of her life.

Rushing forward, the two she-cats rubbed against each other. "I'm sorry, Reedtail. I didn't mean to be gone so long. I got a mouse to eat, and so I didn't go hungry. I just got tired."

Reedtail simply licked the kit fiercely. She had lost all five of her kits_and_ Crystalkit's brothers in less than a moon, and all to badgers. _Or so she thinks,_ Crystalkit thought, thinking back to the conversation she had had with Greeneyes about her past. Walking next to Reedtail, Crystalkit drank in the motherly she-cat's scent, glad to have survived the night and the trek back from the gorge. In the camp, all of the warriors came to greet her. The apprentices congratulated her on a wonderful escape from the camp, and the leader of the young Clan, Waterstar, smiled and came over to welcome her back. The two elders smiled at the welcoming the only kit was getting after being out for a whole night and coming back in one piece.

One cat stood out from the crowd of Clan cats. Shootingflame, Greeneyes's second, if he were to be believed, mate. She glared openly at small, insignificant little Crystalkit with such contempt, you could feel it all the way at the lake Clans' gathering place. Her amber eyes blazed with an angry fire as she gazed upon the one living kit of her mate's first litter.

**I cannot believe I just did that. I named three of the cats in a Clan all at once, in three separate paragraphs... I'm so proud of myself! Thanks to those of you readers who've given me positive encouragement! This is my first story, so I'm sorry the chapters are so short. I promise I'll be getting better as I go! Please remember to R&R!**


	4. Chapter 3: Leaf-bare Problem

_**Moons Later...**_

_****_Crystaleyes pounced on a mouse, killing it with a bite to the spine. Looking around, she scented the rest of her patrol not far off. It was leaf-bare, and hunting was getting harder and harder for those who couldn't blend in with the snows well. Crystaleyes's black-and-white tabby markings made it easier for her to hunt than her best friend, the younger tom named Firepelt because of his flame-colored pelt. Burying her catch with a small water vole she'd caught earlier. Even though she'd caught something, it would hardly be enough to feed the Clan, seeing as the fresh-kill pile had been empty since yesterday. Sooner or later, WaterClan would have to leave the watery forests they knew best to find new territory before every cat starved.

"Crystaleyes! Did you catch anything good?" Flamepelt asked as they made their way through the snow piles to the camp in the lake-side.

"Just some skimpy mice and an equally skimpy water vole," she muttered around her catches. Flamepelt boasted an owl and two mice. The owl nearly tripped him as they made their way down the slope. Only by walking next to him was Crystaleyes able to keep him on his feet down the slippery, watery slope to camp. Inside, no cat stood still. Warriors and apprentices alike were rushing in and out of camp in hunting patrols and a few border patrols, queens and kits were walking around camp, and elders were hobbling around, hoping to be given a duty by the deputy or leader, who had both just gone on separate patrols.

You could see every bone in the cats' bodies.

As the two young cats set their catches down, the two queens came over and took the two mice Flamepelt caught and shared it with the four starving kits. One of the apprentices came over and took the owl to the elders, while another took the vole and waited for the other two to come and share. Crystaleyes's four mice would have to feed all seven of the warriors and the deputy and leader. No cat would be full for a good many moons to come.


	5. Chapter 4: Rainstar's Call

"Let every cat who can walk join beneath the Tallrock for a Clan meeting!"

Crystaleyes looked up at the Clan leader in surprise. He hadn't called a Clan meeting in a long time, and especially not with every cat who could walk. Nevertheless, every cat managed to drag themselves to sit below the Tallrock, the elders nearest the base while the warriors took their seats in the back. The queens herded the kits to sit between the ragged groups of older cats, then went to sit among the warriors.

"This Leaf-bare has been hard on us," he began, looking around at the assembled cats. "Yet we must push on. I know we are all tired, but we must be stronger than ever to survive. "

The warriors lifted their heads slightly at this, but Crystaleyes kept her head down. She knew what would happen if they could't show the forest they were strong enough to handle this Leaf-bare. The group of rouges once controlled by her father would tear the Clan to pieces and leave nothing alive. Not even a kit. And every cat knew this, but were determined to live to fight the rouges off Clan territories.

"We all know the consequences of losing one warrior to this Leaf-bare." At that, several of the older warriors glared at Crystaleyes, as if she were the one that brought the rouges upon the Clans every Leaf-bare. "Tomorrow night is the Meeting. I shall take only two warriors, leaving the rest to watch over our camp. Firepelt and Crystaleyes, are you willing to come with me to the Meeting?"

Both young warriors nodded solemnly. They knew full well that they were the healthiest and strongest out of all cats in the Clan. Rainstar dismissed the Clan, and Crystaleyes and Firepelt headed for the warrior's den, tired after a hard day's hunting and worried about the Meeting of Clans the next night.

They knew better than most that WaterClan was the worst off of all three Clans.


End file.
